Family Court Chief Justice Alastair Nicholson today welcomed aspects of a proposed overhaul of Australia's child custody system but said he doubted a Families Tribunal would work.

A federal parliamentary committee yesterday recommended a major overhaul of the Family Court system including the creation of a Families Tribunal.

The report recommended an emphasis on mediation and problem-solving, rather than the traditional court-based adversarial system.

The first stage would be a forum for separating parents to be given information and offered counselling and mediation.

When this failed, parents would move on to a new Families Tribunal, which would carry out many of the functions of the Family Court.

But Justice Nicholson said the tribunal was unlikely to achieve what the committee intended.

"But to me that's not the central aspect of the recommendations, although some might think it is," he told ABC radio.

"It seems to me some of the most important recommendations that they made were, for example, early intervention to provide mediation services before proceedings starts and in fact compulsory mediation is one of their suggestions.

"So it seems to me they're approaching the problem at the right end.

"It seems to me that that's a good approach and a sensible approach.

"I think the idea of one court, judges and magistrates dealing with family matters, is very sensible.

"There's a number of constructive suggestions that have come out of it."